,CS73 



THE 



TA] MAHAL 



A 



POEM. 



BY ^ 



FRANK COWAN. 



^*^"'°"0^*^ 



(tKEENESBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA: 

THE OLIVER PUBLISHING HOUSE: 

MDCCCLXXXIX. 



Cr- 



EXTRACTED FROM 

THE RIME OF A RAMBLER TWICE AROUND THE WORLD, 

By FRANK COWAN. 



THE TAJ MAHAL. 



As to the mass of man, his beating heart, 
So to the world, the throbbing realm of Ind ; 
And as to man, his heart of hearts, or soul, 
So to the world, in Ind, the Taj Mahal ! 

Describe it ? Nay ! impossible, in words ; 
Depict it ? Nay ! impossible, in paint ; 
As well attempt a storm at sea in song, 
Or the resplendent crown of the Creator, 
The jeweled rainbow, on a yard of canvas ! 

And yet, since naught avails more potent than 
The pen and pencil to poor mortals, I 
Must fain make use of one or both, fair lady. 
Or lay me mute and palsied at your feet. 
So, by your gracious leave, I will take up 



THE TAJ MAHAL. 

The pen and pencil as it best beseems 

The subject. Look without, but see within. 

Within this beautiful and wondrous world, 

The fairest and the fertilest of lands, 

Boned by the Ghauts and the sublime Himal'yas, 

Veined by the holiest of streams, the Ganges, 

And fleshed with an alluvium producing 

The grandest growths of plants and animals, — 

The sacred soil of the divine Rig- Veda, — 

The classic scene of the Mahabharata, 

The Ramayana, and Sakuntala, — 

The motherland of history and art, — 

The fatherland of wisdom and religion, — 

The lotus-land of love and luxury, — 

The cradle, haply, of humanity, — 

The koh-in-oor of England's crown, fair Ind. 

Within this beautiful and wondrous land, 

A city of surpassing loveliness. 

Upon the sacred Jumna's beauteous banks, — 

The city whilom of the kings of Lodi, — 

The city afterward of their successors. 

The mighty monarchs of the Chagtai Turks, — 

The city known to fame throughout the world 

For its unrivaled palace, mosques, and tombs, — ' 

The city of the Great Mughal, fair Agra. 

Within this beautiful and wondrous city, 

Of fine red sandstone, hewn and laid with skill. 

Four lofty walls, joined deftly at right angles 

To form a perfect parallelogram, 

A third and over of an English mile 

In length, by a full fifth, or more, in width ; 

With a fair turret at each corner, and 

A grand gate in the middle of the front. 

And each of the side walls, as well — the front. 



THE TAJ MAHAL. 6 

The grandest of the three, surmounted with 
A score of marble domes ranged in two rows ; 
And from the parapet above, and through 
The doorway of the vaiilted room beneath, 
Affording to the eye the fairest views. 

Within these beautiful and wondrous walls, 

In the eternal summer of the South, 

A garden of delight, as fair in fact 

As ever feigned in oriental fancy ; 

Unto the eye, filled with the forms of ferns 

And palms, in filmy, feathery arcades, 

And cypresses in dark contrasting spires, 

And spangled with the rarest flowers that bloom ; 

Unto the ear, filled with the hvim of bees, — 

Winging their honied way from floAver to flower, 

And thence to the suspended hive within 

The sheltered apex of a gateway arch, — 

And the sweet melody of countless birds, — 

Among the myriad, the love-sick bulbul 

Outpouring to the rose its soul, as sweetly 

As sung within the poesy of Persia ; 

Unto the nostril, filled, as well, with the 

Sweet perfumes of a myriad of flowers 

Compounded and distilled into a breath, 

As sweet belike as that which passed from God 

Into the red-earth of the first of men ; 

In fine, unto the all-involving senses, 

A beautiful and blissful Paradise ! 



Within this beautiful and wondrous garden, 

A marble basin parting it in tAvain, — 

A fountain studded with a hundred jets. 

Which, when in action, add the grace and beauty 

Of cataracts of gems unto the scene ; 

And Avhen at rest, leaving the fount a mirror, 

In which, to the observer from the gateway, 



THE TAJ MAHAL. 

The foliage and fiovv'rs upon the sides, 
The birds and butterflies flitting above, 
Are, one and all, reflected, and, as well. 
The Taj set in the soft blue sky, beyond, — 
The marble of its domes and minarets 
Transformed, as b}^ enchantment, into pearl ! 

Beyond this beautiful and wondrous tank, 

Extending the full width of the fair garden. 

Upon the river's brink, a mural base. 

With marble faced, and forming a broad platform, 

A fathom, scant a third, above the garden. 

Upon this platform, on the left, approaching, 

A mosque of sandstone with three marble domes : 

And on the right, a counterpart in all 

Save the essential fronting of a mosque; 

Twin structures of exceeding grace, opposing 

As a fair face its image in a mirror. 

Between these beautiful and wondrous mosques, 

A marble plinth, rising above the base 

Three fathoms — in effect, a second platform. 

In shape, a square of two and fifty fathoms ; 

And, at each corner of the square, uprising 

A minaret of marble, tapering, 

Cylindric, and surmounted with a railed 

And roofed pavilion of the same fair substance — 

A tower in height full twenty-seven fathoms ! 

Among these beautiful and wondrous towers, 
Uprising from the centre of the plinth. 
The ultimate of the grand garden tombs 
Peculiar to the Chagtai emperors 
Of Upper India, or Hindostan — 
The mausoleum proper of the Taj ! 
In shape, a cube — the corners, opposite 
The minarets cut off, and occupying 



THE TAJ MAHAL. 



A space of one and thirty fathoms square ; 

Surmounted with a cluster of fair domes, 

As graceful as if turned upon a lathe ; 

The central of them, in diameter, 

Eight fathoms and a third, and thirteen high ; 

The crescent of Muhammad on the top, 

Full forty fathoms and a half above 

The level of the garden — higher than 

The summit of the great Qutub Minar, 

The peerless Asiatic shaft, at Delhi ! 

And more than half the height of the world's 

wonder 
That towers above the valley of the Nile ! 
The whole of white and polished marble, cut 
And fit with nicest skill, with, here and there, 
Relieving to the lustre of the walls, 
Inscriptions from the text of the Quran, 
In Persian characters, inlaid in jet. 

In one grand view, upon a single plinth, 
The monument of Trajan, of old Rome, 
The shaft of the Vendome, of modern Paris, 
The Alexander shaft, of Petersburgh, 
And the Albert Memorial, of London, 
With half of great St. Peter's in their midst I 

Within this beautiful and wondrous pile, 

A series of communicating chambers. 

Within the central and the chief, beneath 

An echoing dome, a marble fence or screen. 

So finely chiseled in an open pattern 

That it can be compared alone to lace. 

And so inlaid with precious stones, in floral. 

And other apt designs, that it can be 

Compared alone to what hath ne'er been seen 

Save in the fancy of the covetous — 

In caverns, in the depths untold of earth, 



THE TAJ MAHAL. 

Illumined with a galaxy of gems 

Set in a sapphire sky instead of stars ; 

Or gardens, wrought by an enchanter's wand, 

In which the verdant leaves are emeralds, 

The ruddy roses, rubies, and the dew 

Bespangling all, the scattered dust of diamonds ! 

Within this beautiful and wondrous screen, 
Two monumental slabs, or cenotaphs, 
Of marble of the finest mold and finish, 
Transmitting to all time the names of those 
Who rest beneath, in two sarcophagi,— 
The empress, Mumtaz, in whose memory, 
And Shah Jehan, the emp'ror, at whose word, 
The peerless and incomparable tomb 
Was built — employing twenty thousand men 
For twenty years ! at an expenditure 
Of gold enough to make a casket of 
The precious metal to contain itself! 

But oh, how feeble and imperfect fact 
And figure to convey an image of 
The Taj as a sublime, seraphic whole, 
And its effect upon the wanderer 
Responsive to the beautiful and pure ! 

One cries aloud, " There is no mystery, 

No sense of partial failure, in the Taj. 

A thing of perfect beauty in detail. 

It might pass for the work of genii, who 

Knew nothing of the weaknesses and ills 

With which mankind incarnate are beset! " — 

( Bayard Taylor. ) 

Another says, " The Taj is more a vision 

Of beauty than a firm reality — 

A dream in palpable and solid marble — 



THE TAJ MAHAL. /-. 

A thought, a sentiment of tenderness, 
A sigh of an engrossing mortal love. 
Caught and imbued with such eternity 
As the foundations of the earth can give ! " — 

( Anonymous. ) 

A third exclaims, " Until the day I die, 

Mid mountain streams and moonlit forest strolls, 

Wherever and whenever the mood comes. 

When all that is most sacred and sublime 

Recur to shed their radiance upon 

The tranquil mind, there will be found among 

My treasures a rare gem of priceless worth. 

The mem'ry of that lovely charm, the Taj ! " 

( Andrew Carnegie. ) 

A fourth declares, " The Taj Mahal ! it is 
Too pure to be the work of human hands. 
The angels must have brought it from high heaven, 
And a glass case should be placed over it 
To shield it from the faintest breath of air ! " — 

( ZoFFANY, A Russian. ) 

A fifth exclaims, " The Taj ! the sight of it 
Marks a new era in a mortal's life ! " — 

( Bholanauth Chunder, a Hindoo. ) 

A sixth, " It stands, in beauty, purity, 
And lustre, as unrivaled on the earth, 
As the effulgent full moon in high heaven ! " — 

( Anonymous.) 

A seventh sees in it, ^' Of wedded love, 
The most sublime romance ! " — 

( Anonymous. ) 



THE TAJ MAHAL. 



An eighth, as well, 
" The last triumphant wonder of the world ! " — 

( Lady Nugent. ) 



To add to or to supplement all which, 
What can I say ? But this alone, in truth, 
That, having viewed in a succession the 
Most beautiful of all the buildings of 
The continental quarters of the globe. 
And while their images were still distinct 
And lustrous in my memory, the Taj 
Surpassed, not only all I had beheld. 
But also the extravagant conceptions 
I had compounded with rapt vision from 
The glowing pages of my predecessors. 

When, standing in the grandest of the gateways, 

I, from that vantage point, beheld it first, 

I stood in a suspense of ecstasy ; 

Until my senses, sunk within the sea 

Of wild emotion welling from my heart, 

I staggered in a strange bewilderment. 

And sank exhausted in a flood of tears ! 



I do not feign a feeling I have not. 

It is recorded that the strongest oft. 

Beholding, the first time, the peerless Taj, 

So wondrously effective in itself, 

In its surroundings, and in sentiment. 

Have wept, as children weep ; and when the strong 

Give way to tears, why may not, too, the weak ? 



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